stay. D arrived in Japan with a forged passport in early 1990, met C, and gave birth to B in Japan. However, C at that time was married to another woman, and D was irregularly staying and did not have any document to prove her identity. The notification of B’s birth was also not submitted to a Japanese municipality office. B was raised by C and D, but grew up not going to an elementary school or junior high school. The family fell into poverty upon C losing his job and was even temporarily homeless. The family subsequently started to receive assistance from the local government. B is biologically a child of a Japanese national. However, as C is not his or her legal father, B could not acquire Japanese nationality jus sanguinis (Article 2(i), Japanese Nationality Act). Furthermore, as D’s nationality is unknown, B is also unable to acquire nationality in a real sense from his or her mother. B’s legal representative/attorney sought acceptance of the notification of B’s birth, with the nationality of the mother being stateless, but the municipality office refused to accept it. B thus filed a petition with a family court in 2016 requesting its permission to have his or her family register created based on having acquired Japanese nationality by birth under Article 2(iii), as B was born in Japan, the legal father was unknown, and the mother does not have a nationality.195 In this case, whether the mother, D, possessed Chinese or Thai nationality was disputed. Based on the facts, including that the consulate section of the Chinese embassy in Japan responded to D that “there was nothing that the embassy can do for you,” the Tachikawa Branch of the Tokyo Family Court ruled that: “there is no document certifying the claimant’s mother’s possession of Chinese or Thai nationality. The details of the place where the claimant’s mother had been living in Thailand with her family are unknown, and there is no means for her to contact her family.” The court determined the mother’s nationality status to be stateless, and it issued an authorization for B’s family register to be created, stating that B has acquired Japanese nationality by birth under Article 2(iii).196 Later, in November 2017, the mother D was granted Special Permission to Stay (ICRRA Article 50(1)), given a status of residence as “spouse of Japanese national, etc.”, and her foreigner residence card issued at the time lists “Stateless” in the “Nationality/area of origin” column. 2. Significance of Article 2(iii) of the Nationality Act When a father and mother are stateless or unknown, a child born in Japan would be stateless had there been no specific legislative measure, in light of the Japanese nationality law framework adopting the jus sanguinis principle. For this purpose, the Japanese Nationality Act allows for the acquisition of Japanese nationality by birth for the purpose of preventing statelessness. This is Article 2(iii), which provides that “If born 195 196 Family Register Act Article 110 (1). See supra note 169. Tokyo Family Court Tachikawa Branch, unpublished adjudication on 5 December 2016. 96